The Mech Touch

Ves leaned his head against his fist as he tried to figure out what he was missing.

After creating five different coin presses, he failed to make any progress. Why was it so hard to nail down a device that could produce living coins by itself?

"Conventional solutions won't cut it. I have tried all of the fairly obvious solutions, to no avail. There are rules in play that prevent my work from fulfilling its purpose."

He wouldn't be suffering from this problem as much if he stuck to producing mechs. While they also required a human element in order to make them alive, he could at least leave this job to mech technicians.

"Is that what I'm missing? The human element?"

Working off this premise, he designed a sixth iteration of his coin minter before he called in a random mech technician who was on shift in the production hall.

"You called, patriarch?"

"Yes. Please head over there and operate this new coin producer of mine. Don't worry. I will pass on everything you need to do your job."

The mech technician was bright and eager, but unfortunately that was not enough to make a difference. The Cat Coins that the technician produced suffered from the same absence of life as the ones that came before!

"Thank you for your services. You can return to your regular duties."

Ves grew a bit more depressed now that he had failed again. Although he understood that this was a normal process whenever he tried to innovate a new solution to a difficult problem, what frustrated him was that he did not obtain any information that could nudge him in the right direction.

Even if he made a hundred different coin presses, as long as he did not come up with a radical new approach, he wouldn't be able to make any meaningful progress towards his goal!

As Ves racked his brain for a tangent that was different and promising enough to make this project succeed, his comm suddenly chimed.

He accepted the hail. A projection of his wife as well as the baby in arms appeared in front.

Gloriana curiously her husband and his surroundings. The different variations of failed coin presses were highly distinctive.

"What are you doing, Ves?"

"I'm just working on a little engineering project." Ves dismissively waved his hand. "Why are you calling? Shouldn't you be preparing to bear your next designer baby?"

"About that. I have just started the process with the Larkinson Biotech Institute and the geneticists from Witshaw & Yeneca. They just asked me to decide on how our baby should appear, and I was thinking about introducing a little more variety in our family."

"Like what?" Ves curiously asked.

"Hair color, for a start. Aurelia here has inherited the same dark hair as us, and I am happy for that." Gloriana preened as she planted a kiss on their daughter's head. "I originally thought it was fine for our second daughter to inherit the same trait as well, but then I thought that it would be great if we can introduce more variety."

"You called me just for this? Gloriana, changing hair color can be done at any point in someone's life. If I want to become a blond, I can drop by the Dragon's Den and put myself under a machine that replaces all of my hair follicles in less than an hour."

"That's not the point, Ves. This is our child's natural appearance we are talking about. How she is born into our reality and how she looks as she grows up will define her self-image for times to come. I want Aurelia and our second daughter to treat each other as close as sisters. I don't want them to think that they are too alike to each other."

This was a decent argument. Ves seriously contemplated it for a moment and thought it was fine if his family gained a little variety.

It didn't have to be permanent anyway. If his second daughter didn't like her hair color, she could get a quick fix that would allow her to possess the same dark hair as her parents.

"Okay, suppose I am okay with this. What do you have in mind?"

"Blond is too extreme and brown is too subtle of a change. What do you think about red or ginger?"

"Red?"

That was an interesting hair color. It also came in many subtle varieties, ranging from orange to a shade closer to maroon.

He liked this choice. "Okay. Do it then. Do you have any other changes in mind?"

She shook her head. "No. Our genes are already perfect enough that our children will become beautiful regardless of how they grow. I will fill you in on all of the planned specifications of our second baby once I return to the Spirit of Bentheim. Her design will be absolutely stellar!"

"I hope so as well. Is Aurelia looking forward to getting a little sister?"

The young lady cradled in Gloriana's arms curiously tilted her head. "Sister? Want!"

Ves and Gloriana chatted for another minute before they ended the call.

"Hopefully, the doctors will be ready to implant a fetus in my belly within a month. I am looking forward to bearing another life in my belly. Aurelia will soon be able to take charge over her future sister!"

"Sister!"

The call ended, leaving Ves alone in his workshop.

He looked thoughtful as he mulled over Gloriana's last words. There was something about them that made him think about a different solution.

"Instead of producing the coins… how about growing them?" He proposed.

It sounded weird. Why would anyone want to go through the cumbersome process of growing coins as if they were bioproducts when it was a lot more inefficient than using a normal minting machine?

Yet… if it worked for biomechs, it should work for coins as well!

"Maybe… this is the breakthrough that I have been looking for. Conventional technology is great in many areas, but it falls short when it comes to creating life!"

Biotechnology offered a viable alternative. Unlike the normal methods, the biotech approach to production entertained creating biological seeds before dropping them in nutrient pools where they could slowly grow into their programmed forms.

His previous visit to the Life Research Association became incredibly handy now. Even though he was not a biotech expert himself, he had spent enough time in a state that was filled with biotechnology to know what was possible and how it worked in general terms!

He was sure that the Lifers could develop an organic coin minter that could create biological coin seeds that could eventually grow into real coins.

The consistency of the coins might not be as even. The designs and material composition of the coins need to be changed as well in order to accommodate the organic growth process.

However, as long as Ves made the changes, he could end up with a biological machine that could finally solve his problem!

"I can't do this alone. I need a biotech expert to do the heavy lifting on the design of the organic coin press."

Ves turned around and stared at the three dormant Aspects of Lufa that he had set to the side.

Each of them were successful examples of how he was able to combine his design philosophy with organic components.

The outer layers of cloned human tissue that covered their surfaces should have rotted a long time ago. Yet due to being sustained by an unknown interaction between their organic forms and their spiritual foundations, the organic statues were still as healthy as ever!

This was proof that combining biotechnology and spiritual engineering could produce remarkable results that defied common sense!

Although he felt a bit squeamish about messing with biotechnology again, the prospect of solving one of his long-standing problems was too tempting for him to resist!

Before he was ready to give the Larkinson Biotech Institute a call, he paused and formulated a new plan.

"What kind of organic machine should I make?"

It was best if it could be a self-contained organic production machine that created coins by growing them inside its body before ejecting them after they had reached their mature forms.

"It's no different from human reproduction." Ves remarked. "Just like how Gloriana is planning to grow and eventually give birth to our second daughter, my organic minting machine will also be able to grow and give birth to its little treasures!"

He was well aware of the absurdity of equating his wife to a coin making machine.

"The difference between my wife and a coin press is that one of them is more profitable than the other."

While an outsider might think this comparison was nonsense, it made complete sense to Ves. The more he imagined the organic coin press as a pregnancy machine, the more he thought this idea was viable!

Once he settled on his new plan, he quickly contacted Director Ranya. Though the head of the Larkinson Biotech Institute was currently in the process of helping Gloriana and Ketis design their next babies, she had enough time to offer her feedback.

"If you need to make an organic machine perform the work of a conventional machine, then you have come to the right place. My agenda is full so I cannot help you in person, but Dr. Avalon Perris should be able to provide assistance. She would love to be involved in a new bioengineering project."

"Dr. Perris? Ah, I remember. She's fine. Please notify her of my intentions and tell her to prepare. I want to get started right away once I arrive on your ship."

Once Ves made the arrangements, he grabbed a few failed products and left his workshop.

As he boarded a shuttle that headed to the bioresearch vessel of the Larkinson fleet, he quickly called up Dr. Perris' record.

As the only biomech designer in the Larkinson Clan, she didn't quite fit in with the rest. She had no place in the Design Department considering that everyone exclusively worked with mechanical mechs.

After wasting a few weeks in a department where she wasn't able to pursue her passion, she decided to transfer to the Dragon's Den where she was able to work alongside her fellow Lifers and biotech researchers.

The records didn't mention much about her subsequent work, but it did mention that she had never stopped designing biomechs since she became a part of the Larkinson Clan.

She also worked on another important project that Ves had not paid much attention to despite its importance. He should really rectify that during his upcoming visit.

"I should give her an opportunity to design commercial biomechs if she has done well enough. Our clan shouldn't neglect biomechs entirely."

There was no need to make a grand effort, though. Dr. Perris was still an Apprentice Mech Designer and needed to do a lot more before she found her way.

As the shuttle landed in a familiar hangar bay, Ves and his bodyguards headed deeper into the massive half-organic capital ship.

He visited the bioresearch vessel enough times to know where the labs were located. Once there, he sniffed out the lab that Dr. Perris had reserved and entered a white and clean chamber.

Numerous conventional and organic lab devices were laying dormant to each other. None of them showed any signs that they conflicted with each other.

"Patriarch Ves. It has been months." Dr. Perris greeted. "When I was informed that you are ready to collaborate with me on a biotechnological project, I did not expect that you would want to make a coin press of all of the possible choices you could make."

"It's important. This is no ordinary coin press. I already filled you in on our goals, right?"

The female biomech designer nodded. "You wish to make a living coin press that can grow living coins. If you wish to do that, then we need to go over the designs of both. You cannot straightforwardly convert a mechanical design into an organical design. The rules are different and it will take time to complete a successful conversion."

"I understand. Before we start on this project, I'd like to check up on another important project. How close are you to completing the meat suit?" Ves asked with a grin.